IBM settles lawsuit against Rakuten over e-commerce patents

June 17 (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) has settled a lawsuit accusing Japan's Rakuten (4755.T) of infringing IBM patents related to e-commerce technology, Delaware federal court records showed on Monday.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Williams said in an oral order that he was "pleased to hear that the parties have reached an agreement to settle this case," according to an entry on the court's docket.

Spokespeople for IBM and Rakuten did not immediately respond to requests for comment and more information about the settlement.

The case had been set to go to trial June 24.

Armonk, New York-based IBM sued Rakuten in 2021, alleging that technology on Rakuten's shopping website and mobile apps for providing cash-back offers infringed its patents. According to the complaint, IBM tried to negotiate a license with Rakuten for nearly six years without success.

Rakuten denied the allegations and argued that the patents were invalid.

IBM won an $83 million jury verdict against Groupon (GRPN.O) in a separate case in 2018 for infringing some of the same patents. Groupon later paid IBM $57 million to settle the case.

IBM dropped a related lawsuit against pet-food seller Chewy in March.

The case is International Business Machines Corp v. Rakuten Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:21-cv-00461.